Improvement in box-toes for boots and shoes



H. W. GEORGE.

BOX TOE FOR BOOTS AND SHOES. No. 95,894. Patented Oct. l9, 1869.

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box-toe than has heretofore been one which will permanently retain the shape UNITED STATES =FORAOE W. GEORGE, OF DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS,

H. YOUNG AND JOHN A. GREENE.

ASSIGNOR TO JOHN IMPROVEMENT IN BOX-TOES FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Eatent No. 95.894, dated October 19, 1869.

, same.

Box-toes, as is well known, are placed within themes or front ends of shoes and boots for the purpose of relieving the toes of the feet from the injurious pressure which the leather would'otherwise exert upon them.

It has been usual heretofore to simply stuff or put leather or other material in the. front end of the shoe or boot, so as to hold the leather permanently up from the toes, sole-leather being' the material ordinarily used for the purpose.

My object is to produce a-better and cheaper practicable,

given it in the first place, and which can readily be made and sold in large quantities as an article of manufacture distinct from the shoe or boot, to which it may afterward be applied.

To this end my invention consists of a molded box-toe made of vulcanized rubber, with or without an intermixture of fibrous material, or of leather, paper, or any suitable material, capable of being formed in molds. A formed boxtoe of this nature by being molded receives a permanent shape. It can be made of scrap and refuse material, andis much better adapted for use than others heretofore employed. It can be molded so that when applied to the shoe it will raise the leather on top of, as well as at the end of, the shoe, and thus perfectly protect from pressure all portions of the toes.

Again, it takes up less room than the box-toes usually employed, the latter being usually thick and clumsy and rendering it necessary that the shoe should be made of a considerably greater length than the foot of the wearer. In thedrawings before referred to I have represented a box-toe'made in accordance with my invention. The material of which the box- -toe is composed in this instance is a coming to the use of leather, whether sole-leather or any other kind, which is usually wet or dampened and bent into shape around the toe during the manufacture of the boot orshoe. Instead, however, of rubber, leather, paper, or any other materialcapable of being formed in molds can be employed.

In the box-toe shown in the drawings the bulging part a, which receives the greater part of the pressure from the upper, is of greater thickness than the top part, b, ofthe toe, which graduallythinsotf or becomes attenuated in proportion to the decrease in the pressure upon it of the upper, a flange, c, on lower portion of the toe, which may be of more or less length andhreadth, and may extend around a greater or less portion of the toe, as circumstances require, constituting the means by which the too can be secured, either by peggmg, sewing, or in any other suitable manner, to the sole.

The .varying dimensions of the box-toe and its parts are, of course, produced by the conformation of the mold in which the too is made, and the shape and proportions of the mold can, of course, be varied as circumstances or taste may require. Having now described my invention and the manner' in which the same is or may be carried into effect, what I. claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

As a new article of manufacture, a molded box-toe for boots and shoes, made of vulcanized rubber, with or without an iutermixture of fibrous material or of any suitable material capable of being formed or shaped in molds,

substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification before two witnesses.

subscribing HORACE W. GEORGE. \Vitnesses:

WM. A. Fos'rER, R. G. BENNETT. 

